You see that endless line? They're victims of our timeWho's only crime was to bank on their fathers dreamsTo work hard all your life, to raise your family with your wifeAnd to survive all the heartaches and bad breaks fate may bringBut dreams are seldom real and an aching heart won't healStanding in a line for a meal at a strangers doorAs night begins to fall, they lay down in the hall of the missionOf the Salvation Army that is loosing the war

And they dream of home, where someone's waitin'Waitin' by the phone at the end of their ropeBut come early dawn as dreams are fadingThey're hanging by a slender thread of hope

Now it's closing time again, she turns her collar to the windGoes running in the rain to a friend on the way back homeTo hold the only joy the world did not destroyA laughing little brown eyed boy she calls her ownThough he leads her by the hand and tries to be her little manHe's really still too young to understand her quiet fearsOh bills weigh on her mind and she hates her daily grind'Cause time for romance was impossible to find these last few years

Now they're goin' home, where no one's waitingWeary to the bone, she tries to copeSitting there alone, while slowly fadingShe rocks to sleep her slender thread of hope

The news comes on at ten, the public servant will explainHow pouring water on the drowning little man will solve the messTo save our way of life and to help us all surviveThose with nothing will now have to stay alive on even less

And as he spoke these words of wisdomLike a cruel joke beyond his scopeWith just one stroke from his fountain penHe cut the last and final thread of hope